United Kingdom

Sources have announced that on the evening of Thursday, December 20, 2012, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief and Australian Senate candidate Julian Assange will deliver a Christmas speech from the Ecuadorean embassy in London. The December 20 speech marks six months of Assange's stay at the embassy, where he has sought refuge since June in order to resist extradition to Sweden and to the U.S. This will also be Assange's first public address since he confirmed his candidacy for the Australian Senate earlier in the week.

One week ago, on August 19, Julian Assange gave a speech, and he did so from a balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London as the British government refuses to recognize a fundamental Human Right: the right to asylum. A large number of reports and opinion pieces about his first public appearance in two months has since been published, a significant amount of which don’t represent at all the truth and the complexity of his present situation. Very few journalists expose the political persecution WikiLeaks is target of or the accumulating evidence relating to Julian Assange's potential extradition to the U.S., yet it is not hard to come by vitriolic satires of his alleged personal habits or, even worse, his confinement and status as a political refugee. But in his address to supporters and the press last week, Julian Assange made a simple and very important plea, calling for an end to the oppression of activists and whistleblowers, and the U.S. secret Grand Jury investigation of WikiLeaks.

Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, has been confronted with questions concerning whether the U.S. has any future intention to extradite and prosecute Julian Assange for WikiLeaks publishing, following Ecuador granting him political asylum due to fears of such prosecution having been considered valid.

WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 582 days.Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 579 days.Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 776 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 662 days.

Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) is a common legal practice in the European Union. It is an agreement between two countries to help cooperation during investigation of alleged crimes. The EU's website states "mutual legal assistance and agreements on extradition are essential for the EU in order to achieve a European area of justice".

WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 580 days.Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 577 days.Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 774 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 660 days.

WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 575 days.Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 572 days.Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial for 769 days.
A secret Grand Jury has been active in the U.S. without transparency for 655 days.

Francisco Carrión is an Ecuadorian diplomat and political analyst. He is the ex-Foreign Affairs Minister of Ecuador, having also worked in the embassies in Paris, Madrid and London. After resigning as head of mission at the United Nations he began teaching at FLACSO University in Quito.

The delay in Ecuador's answer to Mr. Assange's asylum bid hints at a deep think caused by the issue's complexity. What do you think are the key points of the debate?